Information and checklist to doctoral students and their supervisors in preparation for doctoral theses, date announcement and defence

Date and time

Once you have agreed on a preferred date and time for the public defence, the supervisor shall inform the study and research administration thereof (for contact information, see the box above), so that we can check whether the requested date and time is available. The Faculty of Medicine and Health, who is the decision-making body, only permits one public defence at a time within the same subject/specialisation, i.e., a maximum of one defence in the morning and one defence in the afternoon, on any day. You may apply for a public defence on the same date and time as another defence within the same subject/specialisation, but it is important to justify, in writing, why you are requesting the defence on that particular date and time. There is a risk that your application is rejected.

The study and research administration will book a lecture hall and a meeting room. According to ”Guidelines on venues and refreshments in connection with doctoral programme activities” (ORU 1.2.1-01334/2017), this will be in Örebro University’s own facilities.

Remunerations to faculty examiner and the examining committee

The school will pay a remuneration to the faculty examiner and also cover travel and accommodation costs for the faculty examiner and for the members of the examining committee.

Internationalisation – lecture

If the faculty examiner or any member of the examining committee comes from another country, we recommend that they be asked to give a lecture at Örebro University (ORU). We therefore ask you as supervisor, who are in contact with those concerned, to check if this would be possible. If so, please contact the study and research administration for assistance with booking a venue, advertisement etc.

From January 1st 2021, all dissertations within the Faculty of Medicine and Health (MH) must undergo an ethics review prior to a decision on public defense of a doctoral thesis. For each thesis project, the following documentation must be available to the Faculty Office at the latest in connection with the submission of a proposal for public defense:

• Articles and other unpublished material which is to be included in the thesis.
• Issued ethical permits.
• All ethical applications, any additional applications including all appendices.

The requested documentation shall be communicated to responsible administrator at the Faculty Office via the Schools research administration. The documentation is shared via ORU-Cloud and must be structured as follows:

1. The research administration creates one main folder with the same title as the doctoral student's name (eg. Anna Andersson). In this folder, the doctoral student/supervisor includes a Compilation list (as pdf) of all constituent papers included in the thesis, titles and co-authors, along with which ethical permit(s) that apply to each paper. Template for the Compilation list can be found in ”Rutin för etikgranskningsfunktion inom Fakulteten för medicin och hälsa (Appendix 1)” (please note that the document is only partly available in English).

2. In the main folder, the doctoral student/supervisor creats subfolders, one for each separate paper (alternatively the monograph). The subfolders are named Paper 1, Paper 2 etc. and must include:

a) The separate paper/the monograph (as pdf) in full text. Manuscripts can be included in unfinished form.

b) Copies of all ethical applications and permits (decision(s) with approval) along with the ethical permit(s) that apply to the paper (as pdf(s)).

c) Information to the research subjects (in pdf).

For further information on how to properly compile the ethics documentation, we refer you to the ”Rutin för etikgranskningsfunktion inom Fakulteten för medicin och hälsa (Appendix 1)” (please note that the document is only partly available in English).

Once you have agreed on a date for the public defence, and the faculty examiner, examining committee incl. substitute and the chair of the defence all have accepted the assignment, you shall submit the proposal for public defence. The study and research administration will provide links to the web-based forms that are to be used for the proposal. Important! A proposal for public defence, complete with all appendices, must be submitted to the study and research administration 15 weeks – at the latest – prior to the planned date of the public defence.

The doctoral student fills out the form “Application for public defence”. A summary of the form will be automatically generated and sent via e-mail to the doctoral student, the main supervisor and the study and research administration.

Thereafter, the main supervisor fills out the form “The main supervisor’s information to the proposal of public defence” and attached all necessary appendices. A summary of the form and the attached appendices will be automatically generated and sent via e-mail to the main supervisor and the study and research administration.

Within the subject of Medical Science, the thesis should be written in English. A compilation thesis should contain three to five substudies and correspond to four years of full-time study at the doctoral level. The doctoral student must be the lead author of at least three of the substudies. At least two substudies must have been published or accepted for publication in refereed journals. Co-lead authorship is accepted but the doctoral student’s contributions must then be described in detail to allow the examining committee to assess the extent to which the doctoral student’s work meet the intended learning outcomes for the award of the degree. A systematic overview paper or meta-analysis may be included in the thesis. A scientific paper should not be included in more than two theses. The extent of the respective doctoral student’s scientific contribution should be clearly stated.

On the web page Thesis production you will find information to help you as a doctoral student when writing your thesis. You will among other things find essential advice on planning and structuring your work, submission, and publication edition. There are also examples of design recommendations.

Journals shall be contacted prior to the public defence for permission to reprint the articles including images/tables in the thesis (feel free to use this template for this purpose).

In accordance with the faculty publication policy, the doctoral student needs to have Örebro University as affiliation for all substudies included in the thesis.

Contact with the printing office

No later than 15 weeks (preferably earlier) before the public defence is to take place, the doctoral student shall get in touch with the printing office Repro at ORU regarding production of your thesis, by filling out the Form for time plan. In this form you shall specify the series to which the thesis belongs: Örebro Studies in Medicine. You shall also specify your subject (Medical Science) and your specialisation (Biomedicine, Medicine or Surgical Sciences). This information will be printed on your thesis.

Language review (Proofreading)

The introductory chapter shall be subjected to language review. The faculty board allocates funds for this purpose. If you have any questions regarding language review, please contact your study and research administration.

Plagiarism check of the introductory chapter

A plagiarism check must be done on the introductory chapter. According to ”Guidelines for plagiarism check of introductory chapters prior to the public defence of doctoral theses and licentiate seminar for the subject areas of medical science and disability science” (ORU 1.2.1-06334/2017), the doctoral student is responsible for sending the introductory chapter excluding the list of references to the study and research administration, no later than 3 weeks before the planned printing of the thesis. The study and research administration in turn submits it to the plagiarism detection system Urkund.

The specialisation coordinator/head of subject informs the study and research administration about the result of the plagiarism check. The administration informs the printing office that the thesis is OK to print and informs the doctoral student and the principal supervisor thereof.

In the event that possible plagiarism is detected, the specialisation coordinator/head of subject will contact the principal supervisor and the doctoral student immediately. The printing office is also contacted, to stop the printing of the thesis.

Printing and distribution of the thesis

157 copies of the thesis are printed and paid for by the University. 120 of these (including two spiral bound copies) go to the school. The study and research administration sends the thesis to the faculty examiner (one spiral bound copy), the members of the examining committee including the substitute, and the chair of the defence. The administration also makes sure there is a special copy for the announcement ceremony and saves a few copies of the printed thesis for the Archive. On the day of the public defence the administration will bring the remaining copies of the thesis to the lecture hall. Any copies that remain after the public defence are for the doctoral student to keep. The doctoral student distributes the thesis to the persons concerned within the school as well as other contacts.

The remaining 37 copies belong to ORU and are used for distribution to the National Library, all university libraries in Sweden, and internally at ORU (Vice-Chancellor, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, research communicators, University Library, Medical Library, as well as the local newspaper Nerikes Allehanda). Any remaining copies are available for sale. Distribution and sales is handled by Repro.  

The doctoral student may order extra copies at their own expense. It is considerably cheaper to do this in conjunction with the first edition, rather than placing a new printing order later.

For the preliminary review, the study and research administration will send all relevant material to the members of the examining committee. Each member shall make an individual review/assessment whether they recommend or advice against public defence. The examining committee also have the option to read the statement by the internal ethics reviewer. When all preliminary reviews have been submitted to the administration, the doctoral student and the supervisor will be informed of the result. Note that the preliminary recommendation or advice against does not decide whether the thesis be given a final passing grade. 

All courses completed before applying for degree certificate

To be able to receive your degree certificate after your public defence you must also meet the requirements for doctoral courses as stated in your general syllabus. Further information is found on the web page Public defence of doctoral thesis. Fill out the form ”All courses completed for Research Education” and send it via e-mail to the study and research administration.

Degree certificate

After receiving a passing grade at the public defence, the former doctoral student requests their doctoral degree certificate. Further information is found on the web page on how to apply for degree certificate. Note that the degree cannot be issued until a formal decision about “All courses completed for Research Education” has been made. If you have questions, please contact examen@oru.se.